“Not loving yourself is a spiritual deformity.” I once heard a wonderful phrase, “Etiquette appears where love ends.” As the Apostle Paul said, “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” I realized that in fact, no rules can replace love. It is important not so much to follow the rules, but it is important to learn to love. I will touch a little on the topic of Christianity - the idea of ​​​​sacrifice. Here you can drive yourself to neurosis when there is no understanding of true sacrifice. The worst quality of sacrifice is denial of oneself. People think that they are going the right way that the spiritual path is a solution to problems. The Lord spoke of sacrifice as a sacrifice in MY name, which should not be sacrificed on the altar of vice, sin, should not serve someone’s pride, give in or indulge in vice. Often sacrificial behavior only helps sin grows even more and more. The Lord always tells us that our aspirations are known by their fruits. But it is important to understand that if we want to give up something, it is only for the sake of a worthy, good goal! As the Lord said? “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” The Lord calls for sacrificial service. For a Christian, there is only one redemptive sacrifice - this is Christ. How to deal with the measure of sacrifice for the benefit of loved ones? The commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” will help. If a person does not love himself as the image of God, if he treats himself strictly and harshly, then Your neighbor will be afraid of such love. There will be no good fruits! Loving yourself means understanding that I am not just liking yourself. This means realizing that I came here and will leave not according to my own will, but according to the will of God. I'm needed here for something. God loves me. If I torment myself, I will torment God’s beloved child and thereby cause Him pain. I sacrifice myself because of dislike for myself. The Holy Fathers say “Humiliation.” Action according to the meaning of the verb: to humiliate, to disparage: humiliation of someone’s dignity, belittlement, belittlement of someone’s merits. Lack of self-love is spiritual ugliness and masochism. True self-sacrifice or masochism? We'll deal with this later. Thank you for your attention to the post, have a nice day!